Top story: ‘Business as usual’ policy with Putin must end
Good morning. I’m Martin Farrer and it’s my turn to bring you all the news fit to email straight to your inbox.
Britain is putting its national security at risk by allowing Russian “kleptocrats and human rights abusers” to use the City of London to launder “dirty money” to circumvent sanctions, according to a hard-hitting report by MPs. The government’s lax approach was putting money into the hands of regimes opposed to the UK, the report by the foreign affairs select committee says, and accuses ministers of failing to live up to tough rhetoric in the wake of the Salisbury poisoning affair. The committee chair, Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, says the UK can no longer allow a “business as usual” approach to the Kremlin. “The scale of damage that this ‘dirty money’ can do to UK foreign policy interests dwarfs the benefit of Russian transactions in the City,” he says. Our investigative team has produced this very handy guide to explain, by way of Breaking Bad and the Paradise Papers, all you need to know about money laundering.
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‘She will deliver’ – The cabinet’s cold war over Brexit goes on after a thinly veiled threat from Boris Johnson to Theresa May that she has to deliver a deal that takes Britain out of the customs union. On a trip to Artgentina, the foreign secretary said he was confident the prime minister “will deliver” a deal that keeps the Brexiters happy and avoids what would be a doomsday scenario for them of having to remain in the customs union beyond 2020 – the so-called “backstop” solution. Jacob Rees Mogg, the leader of backbench hardliners, has described this outcome in suitably biblical terms as “perpetual purgatory”. But Johnson, in an outward display of loyalty, says his boss must be given “time and space to negotiate this Brexit vision”. Our columnist Nesrine Malik, meanwhile, says Jeremy Corbyn must show some leadership on Brexit – hard, soft, whatever, just some leadership.
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Trump trashing – Back to Russia, or at least its tentacles, and Donald Trump’s never-ending imbroglio over the investigation into his campaign’s alleged links to the Kremlin. On Sunday the US president lashed out at the New York Times for reporting that his oldest son and other aides met in August 2016 with a representative of two Gulf states offering to help the Trump campaign. Those people are now cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigation, the report said. Trump earlier said he was asking the justice department to examine the possibility that the FBI had infiltrated his campaign.
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Rough justice – Vulnerable homeless people are being punished by the courts and even imprisoned for begging and rough sleeping, according to a Guardian investigation. More than 50 local authorities have targeted homeless people with public space protection orders (PSPOs). Examples include a man jailed for four months for breaching a criminal behaviour order for begging in Gloucester and another who was fined £105 after a child dropped £2 in his sleeping bag.
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It’s a triumph – Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has won a second six-year term as leader of the crisis-stricken nation. Maduro dismissed the concerns about electoral fraud that persuaded opposition parties to boycott the poll, and instead hailed an “impeccable process” that had returned him to power with 67.7% of the vote. “The whole of Venezuela has triumphed! Democracy has triumphed! Peace has triumphed! Constitutionality has triumphed,” he told supporters.
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Unfairbnb? – The lettings site Airbnb may be a very convenient way to find a place to stay but it’s wrecking city communities all over Europe and the authorities in Brussels are aiding and abetting the process, campaigners say. Although it started out with people letting spare rooms, a report snappily titled Unfairbnb shows that in a selection of tourist hotspots more than half of the site’s listings – sometimes as many as 85% – are whole apartments. That reduces the housing stock for local rentals, the activists say, and pushes up prices. One of those cities, Berlin, has introduced laws to crackdown on the number of holiday rentals and has a team of investigators trying to root out illicit operators.
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Cougar attack – The horrifying story of the mountain biker mauled to death by a cougar in Washington state prompted questions about what the man and his friend could have done to avoid the attack. But police have said the men did everything right by getting off their bikes and making a lot of noise when they realised the lion was following them on the remote Cascade mountains track. Although the animal was chased off initially, it returned and dragged one of the men to his death. “Something was wrong with this cougar,” police said.
Lunchtime read: ‘I’m proud to be a feminist,’ says Meghan Markle
You really didn’t think the briefing was going to miss out on the royal wedding did you? As Windsor begins its mighty cleanup, the Duchess of Sussex (aka Suits star Meghan Markle) has announced her arrival with a profile on the in-laws’ family website. “I’m proud to be a woman and a feminist,” it says, and tells us that she has been interested in social issues from an early age helped by stints as a volunteer in the soup kitchens of her native Los Angeles. And in case you missed it, Hadley Freeman invokes the John Goodman film King Ralph to argue that the duchess could be just the right American that the royal family needs.
Sport
Gary Cahill, the Chelsea captain, has urged the club’s board to end the uncertainty surrounding Antonio Conte’s future at Stamford Bridge after leading his team to victory in the FA Cup final. A year after Alexander Zverev announced his arrival in the big time by crushing Novak Djokovic to win the Italian Open, the young German held his own but not his crown as Rafael Nadal outlasted him to win his eighth title in Rome. Meanwhile, the women’s world No 1, Simona Halep, collapsed spectacularly in her rematch with Elina Svitolina to hand the Ukrainian a second Italian Open title. England’s rugby World Cup preparations have been thrown into turmoil with their defence coach, Paul Gustard, leaving Eddie Jones’s coaching staff to join Harlequins. And with Pakistan getting ready for the first Test on Thursday, Azhar Ali believes they can take 20 England wickets at Lord’s.
Business
The face of Britain’s high streets really is changing and that is very bad news for hundreds of workers at Marks and Spencer who could find out as soon as today if their stores are among those being earmarked for closure. M&S was once the flagship of British retail but has seen its share price fall by 25% in the past year and is in danger of disappearing from the FTSE100.
The index itself is set for a bounce of 0.75% this morning thanks to the prospects of a US-Chinese rapprochement over trade tariffs. No feelgood factor for the pound though. It’s down again to $1.343 and €1.143.
The papers
The royal nuptials still dominate many front pages. The Mail and the Telegraph both lead with what the former calls “Meghan’s manifesto”, namely her new profile on the royal website. The Sun focuses on the happy couple’s choice of music – Whitney Houston apparently, which provided the punning headline: “Ooh, one wants to dance with somebody”. More prosaically, the Mirror says “Meghan: I have found my prince” and the Express can only gush: “Absolutely stunning”.
The Guardian leads with our investigation into rough justice for the homeless, with the Roman Abramovich visa story as the second story. The Times leads on the latter and the FT also has the story on its front. However, its lead is that the UK is looking to Australia for help in launching rival to Galileo satellite system.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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